Guides to rollovers, annuities and life insurance

Plain-English answers, with the source for every rule

These guides exist because the questions people bring to a first conversation are almost always the same, and because most of what is written about them online is either an advertisement or a summary of an advertisement. Each one answers a specific question, names the rule it relies on, links to the IRS, the Department of Labor or the California Department of Insurance so you can check it, and carries the date it was last reviewed. Where a figure changes, such as a rate or a contribution limit, we link to the source that publishes it rather than printing a number that will be wrong by the time you read it.

Everything here is education. We are a licensed insurance agency and we say so on every page, so you can weigh what you read accordingly.

Rollovers

What you are seeing online

Short videos about retirement accounts keep returning to the same few subjects: an old account you had forgotten, a monthly income figure, a 0% floor, and how to get more detail. Each of these guides takes one of them and works through it in full, with the source for every rule.

When the market falls

Evaluating what you are offered

What we are writing next

The queue follows the questions we are actually asked: whether converting a 401(k) to an annuity is a good idea, what an IRA annuity is, how to get money out of an annuity without a penalty, a plain-language glossary of the terms that appear in every contract, and a set of local pieces, including what a funeral actually costs in Monterey County and what happens to a 457(b) when you leave county service. Each will follow the same rules as the ones already published.

How these guides are written

1. One question per guide, answered in the first paragraph, then explained.
2. Every rule links to its source. If we cannot link it, we do not assert it.
3. No invented figures. No statistic, rate, cap or dollar amount appears unless it comes from a named publisher, with its date.
4. Every annuity mention carries its limits — surrender charges, withdrawal limits, caps — in the same breath as any benefit.
5. A named author and a review date on every page, and a correction when something changes.

If a guide is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will fix it. The contact details are on our contact page.

Questions about these guides

Reviewed by Roberto Morales, California Insurance License #0G97165. Next Wave Options is licensed for life and annuity products only and does not provide investment, tax or legal advice.